Spanning four generations, Isabel Allende's family saga is populated by an often eccentric cast of characters. Together, men and women, spirits, the forces of nature and of history, converge in a brlliantly realised novel.

This is a wonderfully accomplished farce with the joke of using her own name in the title (Barbara Mary Crampton Pym). From that point she sails off into a wickedly comedic farce, focusing -- in recognisingly 'pym' fashion -- on the unsuitable romantic entanglements of a curate and a pretty young girl, both of whom live in the same rooming house, and a starry-eyed university professor and his ...

Candida Wilton arrives in London broke, divorced and rejected, yet somehow filled with a strange sense of excitement. Secretly convinced that despite all, she is a lucky person, she is proved right with an unexpected windfall. To broaden her horizons, she plans a trip abroad.

It is London in the year 1844, and a shy young woman has arrived to take up a new position in the grandeur of No 50, Wimpole Street. Subtly, this book gives voice to Elizabeth Wilson's untold story, her complex relationship with her mistress, Elizabeth Barrett, and her dramatic role in the most famous elopement in history.

* The Australian answer to GONE WITH THE WIND * 'One of the biggest-selling, most widely read books in the history of fiction' Observer